Twenty years of ocean observations with China Argo

The international Argo program,a global observational array of nearly 4000 autonomous profiling floats initiated in the late 1990s,which measures the water temperature and salinity of the upper 2000 m of the global ocean,has revolutionized oceanography.It has been recognized one of the most successful ocean observation systems in the world.Today,the proposed decade action“OneArgo”for building an integrated global,full-depth,and multidisciplinary ocean observing array for beyond 2020 has been endorsed.In the past two decades since 2002,with more than 500 Argo deployments and 80 operational floats currently,China has become an important partner of the Argo program.Two DACs have been established to process the data reported from all Chinese floats and deliver these data to the GDACs in real time,adhering to the unified quality control procedures proposed by the Argo Data Management Team.Several Argo products have been developed and released,allowing accurate estimations of global ocean warming,sea level change and the hydrological cycle,at interannual to decadal scales.In addition,Deep and BGC-Argo floats have been deployed,and time series observations from these floats have proven to be extremely useful,particularly in the analysis of synoptic-scale to decadal-scale dynamics.The future aim of China Argo is to build and maintain a regional Argo fleet comprising approximately 400 floats in the northwestern Pacific,South China Sea,and Indian Ocean,accounting for 9%of the global fleet,in addition to maintaining 300 Deep Argo floats in the global ocean(25%of the global Deep Argo fleet).A regional BGC-Argo array in the western Pacific also needs to be established and maintained.

Inhibition mechanism of air nanobubbles on brass corrosion in circulating cooling water systems

Air nanobubbles(A-NBs)were used to inhibit the brass corrosion in circulating cooling water for the first time in the study.The results of mass loss method and electrochemical method showed that A-NBs had the obvious corrosion inhibition effect.The inhibition rate reached 52%at 35℃.The impedance and surface characterization results of corrosion samples indicated that the corrosion inhibition mechanisms of A-NBs mainly included adsorption of corrosion ions,promoting the formation of the passivation film on metal surface and the formation of the bubble layer and scale film on metal surface.A-NBs are potential excellent corrosion inhibitors.

Molecular profiling reveals potential targets in cholangiocarcinoma

BACKGROUND Cholangiocarcinoma(CCA)is a devastating malignancy and has a very poor prognosis if tumors spread outside the liver.Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the CCA progression will likely yield therapeutic approaches toward treating this deadly disease.AIM To determine the molecular pathogenesis in CCA progression.METHODS In silico analysis,in vitro cell culture,CCA transgenic animals,histological,and molecular assays were adopted to determine the molecular pathogenesis.RESULTS The transcriptomic data of human CCA samples were retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas(TGCA,CHOL),European Bioinformatics Institute(EBI,GAD-00001001076),and Gene Expression Omnibus(GEO,GSE107943)databases.Using Gene set enrichment analysis,the cell cycle and Notch related pathways were demonstrated to be significantly activated in CCA in TCGA and GEO datasets.We,through differentially expressed genes,found several cell cycle and notch associated genes were significantly up-regulated in cancer tissues when compared with the non-cancerous control samples.The associated genes,via quantitative real-time PCR and western blotting assays,were further examined in normal human cholangiocytes,CCA cell lines,mouse normal bile ducts,and mouse CCA tumors established by specifically depleting P53 and expressing KrasG12D mutation in the liver.Consistently,we validated that the cell cycle and Notch pathways are up-regulated in CCA cell lines and mouse CCA tumors.Interestingly,targeting cell cycle and notch pathways using small molecules also exhibited significant beneficial effects in controlling tumor malignancy.More importantly,we demonstrated that several cell cycle and Notch associated genes are significantly associated with poor overall survival and disease-free survival using the Log-Rank test.CONCLUSION In summary,our study comprehensively analyzed the gene expression pattern of CCA samples using publicly available datasets and identified the cell cycle and Notch pathways are potential therapeutic targets in this deadly disease.

The metabolite, alpha-ketoglutarate inhibits non-alcoholic fatty liver disease progression by targeting lipid metabolism

Background:Non-alcoholic liver disease is of increased concern and contributing to economic burdens not only in developing countries but in developed countries as well.Identifying the biomarker of early diagnosis and early intervention approaches for non-alcoholic liver disease is unmet and required further investigation.Although the alpha-ketoglutarate(a-KG)is recently proposed to be a potential biomarker in differentiating patients with obesity from those with non-alcoholic liver disease,how a-ketoglutatate is involved in the fatty liver progression is not clear.Methods:A high-fat diet(HFD)feeding animal model,liver functional assays,and molecular approaches were adopted to clarify the impact of a-KG in fatty liver progression.Results:In the current study,it was found that dietary a-KG would inhibit weight gain in male and female mice fed with a normal chew or HFD.HFD feeding caused fatty liver in male mice,but a-KG treatment could substantially inhibit hepatic steatosis progression.Biochemical studies revealed the possible linkage of a-KG protective functions to lipid metabolism.Further analysis identified the important role of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors in beneficial a-KG-mediated effects on fatty liver progression.Conclusions:The current study demonstrates the therapeutic potential of a-KG and how it may be used,via dietary supplementation,as a preventive intervention for non-alcoholic liver disease in obese patients.